Monday, July 20th - Regensburg, Germany

With no tours planned for this morning we had a bit of a later start, which was a good thing considering how late we were up lasst night watching our journey down the shallow stretch of the Danube.  At one point we were up staring out our window and the boat wasn't moving at ll and it was pouring rain and windy so we knew the captin and crew were having a wet night.  We thought we were grounded but on the TV cam that looks off the box of the ship we could see a light getting brigher and it turned out to be another ship of some kind.  We were pulled over to the one side and stopped to let him pass, then we started our engines and proceeded slowly again. 

Obviously the captain made up for lost time once he got through the next lock and into deeper water because we docked in Regensburg over an hour early,   Some of us were still having our breakfast out on the deck.  Because we were in early I decided to go off on my own and start my tour an hour before the scheduled tour.  I'm sure I missed a lot of the history and background but I did manage to see all that I wanted to see.

They are building a large new museum right down by the water so the first thing we had to do was navigate the construction site.  Once around that it was and easy walk to the stone bridge (Steinerne Bruckle) with its 16 arches, one of the oldest bridges in Europe dating from the 12th century.  It is heavy and strong and impressive but it was hard to see it all as it is under reconstruction and much of it is covered in scaffolding and tarp.  Oh well, I'm sure it will be even nicer when the work is completed.

On the old town side of the bridge is the medieval bridge tower and clock.  I climbed to the top of it to get a better look at the city.  The watchman used to live at the top of the tower but there are no furnishings now, just empty rooms and great views.  And at the food of the tower is the Hitorische Wurstkuche, which I thought was going to be a historical church.  Instead it is a restaurant that is known for its fried sausages with sauerkraut and sweet mustard sauce.  It is just a tiny place but has lots of picnic tables and benches out front and they were full both times I went by.  Frank bought a dozen and we sampled them for lunch when we got back to the ship.  They were small sausages, like breakfast sausages not like fat hot dog sausages.  Despite teh fact that I don't like sausage or sauerkraut, I really enjoyed my sample as it was very tasty.

From there I walked into the old city to see the old Rathaus (city hall) and the Dollinger Hall (banquet place).  Both of the buildings were beautiful but I did not go into them because you have to take a guided tour that is an hour long and I didn't have that much time.

I then went to the Regensburg Cathedral, which is definitely spectacular with its hig towers and gothic decorations.  Built in the 13th century, the cathedral was of course remodelled several times over the years.  The current towers are 341 feet high and very impressive.  The cathedral has about two dozen stone pillars on the outside of the church supporting the internal beams.  There are also about a dozen pillars on the inside and the main dome is almost 100 feet high.  The inside is light in colour with a lot gold decoration and very high vaulted ceilings.  There are large stain glassed windows throughout the building and they are beautiful.  In the middle of the building there are stairs to go down to the sepulchre where former bishops are buried.  There are also somme tombs near the front of the church.  At the back of the church there are two small arched insets about a foot high in the wall.  The one to the left of the door is said to be the Devil's Grandmother and the one to the right of the door is the Devil himself.  He certainly doesn't look like a scary beast but rather a poor miserable creature shrinking into its hole.  There is a statue of a smiling angel Gabriel that is most unusual, and a large pipe organ. 

I ran into Randy at that point  and we went to find the Porto Praetoria, a 2nd century Roman gateway.  We found something that we really couldn't identify and we found something under reconstruction but I'm not sure we really ever found exactly what we were looking for.  I then walked up to the palaces further up the hill.  I passed a number off churches along the way including St. Emmeram's which was surrounded by the arms of the palaces.  Most of the palace buildings are museums so I didn't have time to go in to look around.  The buildings were impressive though.

The one thing I didn't see in Regensburg was the Valhalla.  I even missed it as we sailed past it earlier in the morning and it's hard to miss.   It is high on a hill above the Danube and it is modelled on the Parthenon in Athens.  It has German deities, not Greek, and holds hundreds of busts and plaques commemorating those who made the greatest contributions to Germany.  There are 358 steps going up to the building and pictures of it do indeed show it just like the parthenon so it would have been great to see.  Regensburg is actually a very interesting city to visit and more time is required to do it justice.  There are over 1300 buildings in the city with UNESCO world heritage rating so you could stay very busy just visiting them and the museums.

We had to be back at the ship for a 12:45 sailing and we all made it on time.  The ship then backed out of the Danube channel it was in and took the right fork when it got to a specific point.  That quickly got us to a narrow lock that raised us 17 feet before we continued on our journey down the Danube.  The first two bridges and a pipeline we went under were very low and we just made it.  The upper deck is totally closed and the railings are all down, and the radar antennae at the front of the ship has also been lowered.  Even then we probably didn't have more than three inches of clearance for the pipeline.  It's amazing to see.

There are trails along the river and people are out cycling as we sail along.  At times there are cliffs but generally it is pretty flat at the bank with hills behind.  There are a lot of trees and again many shades of green.  There are also fields of what looks like corn and wheat.  And there are large homes along the way, sometimes no their own and sometimes in small villages.  The villages all have at least one church with a high steeple.  The houses are again coloured in pastels but a lot of white, and all with red roofs.  It's obviously a very populated and busy area because there are lots of bridges crossing the river and a lot of traffic on all of them.

The small outside deck that is available today was full as we set sail and went through the first lock.  Then it cleared out but now as tee time approaches it is getting a lot busier.  We are now going through another lock and doing a lot more bouncing of the sides.  I have a feeling someone other than the captain is at the helm as they don't seem to be quite as good at this.  Of course we really only have a couple of inches on both sides so there is not a lot of wiggle room for a ship that's the length of a football field and a half.

We arrived in Kelheim just before 6:30 to pick up the passengers who were off on a Danube Gorge tour, and then had our port talk and our dinner.  At 9 p.m. we had a Bavarian Folk Evening with an Oom Pah Pah band playing for us.  They were very good but I'm not sure we were really into their kind of music.  Luckily for us there were things to photograph on the river as we moved along.  

We are now on the Rhine, Main, Danube canal that was built just 23 years ago at a cost of 2.35 billion euros.  They don't expect to pay it off until 2050, but it was worth it.  The canal allowed river cruise boats (and probably some cargo boats) to travel through this area for the first time.  It is 171 km in length and joined the North Sea / Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea for the first time.  It crosses the European watershed so some of the locks will raise our level and then at the end some will lower it.  We still have some low bridges to contend with so the upper deck will remain closed but at least we won't have to worry about shallow water for a while.